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The reason if took that volunteer fire department so much water was because they don't have the equipment to treat battery fires. A lot of departments are now having to reconfigure their engines to carry firefighting foams. There is a lot of exxpense with this both in upgrades and what's required to cleanup the aftermath of the fire/foam. The fires can be so intense that they melt the underlying asphalt. Pretty impressive. Guess who is paying most of that cost for all this? You and me taxpayer and insurance carrier.
I play volleyball with a couple of Kansas City firefighters. While they do admit there are way more ICE fires, very rarely are they serious at all. In most cases it's a tiny engine fire and the most drama is trying to get the hood up and hit it with an extingusher or 20 gallons of high pressure water. EV fires though they say rarely are minor and typically become runway fires and burn the car to the ground. The fires are intense and extremely toxic, way more so than an ICE fire due to the chemicals released from the battery. Lastly, the firefighters are very concerned about occupants as many EVs use flush door handles and they've noted that in many instances, the door handles are not retracting in an emergency as designerd. They are also concerned that an unconcious occupant will be killed quickly by burning battery fumes.
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